For many years, animated toy dolls have been popular toys for children. Over these years, more and more sophistication in design has been brought to bear upon the realistic nature of selected animated doll motions in relation to facial-expression structures, and in particular, to such motions which, in addition to appearing to be relatively natural, also occur in a pattern which is not easily learned very quickly by a child—an event which might too soon lessen the child's interest in continuing to play with a doll.
Various motorized or electronic dolls are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,298,130, 3,767,901, 3,912,694, 4,139,968, 4,207,704, 4,767,374, 4,825,136, 4,840,602, 4,900,289, 5,141,464, 5,158,492, 5,191,615, 5,281,143, 5,413,516, 5,636,994, 5,820,441, 6,048,209, and PCT Publication No. WO 00/35548, the disclosures of which are all incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention proposes a very compact, single-motor-driven animation structure effectively mounted within the hollow interior of a doll's head component for opening and closing the doll's eyes and mouth (facial-expression structures) in manners which are relatively realistic. Additionally, the animation structure of the present invention operates in a complex enough pattern that memorization of the pattern is not too likely, especially in the case of young children. The invention also proposes such an animation structure which, in relation to its compactness, is extremely simple, and which can be easily incorporated into an even very tiny doll head component such as, for example, a doll head which might be roughly the size of a golf ball.
These and other interesting features and contributions which are made by the present invention in the field of animated toy dolls will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.